Always Us (The Jade Series #8) (44 page)

“That’s not true!” Victoria calls out. “Pearce knew—”

“Stop!” The man puts his hand out toward Victoria. “You will not speak unless spoken to. Am I clear?”

She nods.

“Given that Royce was deceased at the time, William and Pearce were not required to disclose this information, although it is encouraged since secrets are not to be kept from the group. But technically, they did not break the rules. Royce, of course, did break the rules by not telling us about this, but since he is no longer with us, his punishment must be passed to someone else in his family. Typically, punishment would automatically pass to a brother, but given the many years of dedicated service paid by both William, and his father, Arlin, we have decided against punishing him. Instead, we are here today to pass Royce’s punishment to his wife, Victoria Sinclair. We feel Victoria is most deserving of this punishment, given that she knew of her husband’s affair and the child that resulted from it. We have proof that she knew about this years ago.”

“No!” Victoria raises her hand. “That letter was—”

“Enough!” the man yells. “One more outburst like that and your punishment will become much more severe.”

She purses her lips, her eyes narrowed.

“The child who resulted from the affair is here today. Jade Sinclair. Please step forward.”

I stand there, noticing the room is silent. And then I realize what he said.
Jade Sinclair.
Shit, that’s me! I’ve never heard myself called that before now. I slowly step forward.

“We have run a DNA test and the test showed that Jade is indeed a Sinclair,” he says.

DNA test? What? When did they do that?

He continues. “Which means that she is not to be harmed in any way, given the new rule instituted by Holton Kensington and approved at our meeting last October. If any member is found in violation of this rule, he will be punished. Jade Sinclair, we now have some questions for you.”

Oh, God. I’m definitely going to throw up. I take some breaths, trying to calm my nervous stomach.

“Were you aware that Victoria knew of your existence before Royce’s death?”

“No,” I blurt out.

“When did you first meet Victoria?”

“At a fundraiser for Royce at Mr. Kensington’s house.”

“And how did she act when you met her?”

I take a deep breath so I can speak. My heart’s pounding and it’s making me breathless. “She acted like she didn’t want me around her husband. She gave me an angry look, like I shouldn’t be talking to him. And then she told Royce he had to go give his speech.”

“Looking back, and knowing what you know now, do you feel like she knew you were Royce’s child during that encounter?”

I’m not sure how to answer. I really have no idea. If I think back, I guess it’s possible she knew and that’s why she was trying to keep me away from him. I look a lot like Sadie and a little like Royce, so Victoria had to have figured it out.

I’m not protecting that woman. I’m just going to say it.

“I can’t say for sure if Victoria knew. But given that I look a little like Royce and a lot like Sadie, I think it’s likely that Victoria knew who I was.”

There’s silence, except for the sound of Sadie whispering ‘bitch’ just loud enough for me to hear.

“Sadie Sinclair,” the man says. “Step forward.”

She steps up so that she’s even with me. There’s some whispering among the members.

“You do look very similar,” the man says. “I don’t see how it’s possible Victoria wouldn’t see the similarity and put this together. It just confirms that she knew. And yet even after meeting Royce’s daughter that night, Victoria still didn’t come forward and disclose this. Her goal was to be first lady and she put her own selfish goals ahead of the organization. She knew Royce would be punished and demoted if this were ever revealed, so she hid it from us.”

As he says it, I realize that if Victoria
had
told them, they would’ve killed me. Back then, they didn’t have that rule about not harming a member’s family. They would’ve killed me because I know things I shouldn’t know. So although she didn’t intend to, Victoria saved me. And now, the members can’t hurt me because of the rule Holton made. How crazy is that? Two of my biggest enemies ended up saving me. If Holton knew that, he’d be rolling around in his grave, trying to claw his way out to come back and kill me.

I’m assuming the protection rule only applies to a member’s blood relatives. Otherwise, Holton wouldn’t have made it. He would’ve made sure it couldn’t apply to me. But he didn’t know I was a Sinclair, and since I am, Holton’s rule
does
apply to me. As Royce’s daughter and William’s niece, I’m now protected from ever being harmed.

The man in front of me slams his gavel on the table. “Punishment will now be given. If there are any objections to the punishment discussed earlier, speak now.”

The room is silent, so he continues. “Jade, please step back.”

I do as he says. Sadie starts to step back as well but the man stops her.
 

“Sadie, remain where you are,” he says.

“What? Why? What did I—”

“Quiet! You will not ask questions.” The man’s getting very impatient. “Victoria, step forward.”

He waits until she does, then continues speaking. “Victoria Sinclair, the benefits you and your husband received because of his membership in this organization are now rescinded, and any such benefits received in the past will need to be repaid. We’ve already begun siphoning money from your personal bank accounts and if it’s not enough to cover his debt, we’ll be withdrawing money from your investment accounts. You will not be allowed to take money from your parents or Royce’s family, given that they, too, receive financial rewards from the organization. You will also no longer have access to the clinic. Should you choose to seek revenge via blackmail or selling secrets about us to outsiders, you will be terminated. You are no longer under the newly instituted protection rule. As for your four children, they may continue to receive money from either side of the family, but if we find that any of that money has been given to you, they will no longer be allowed to receive that money. Do you understand?”

Victoria clears her throat. “Yes.”

“Sadie Sinclair. Because of your parents’ actions, we are no longer considering you one of our options for Evan’s future wife.”

“But—” She stops when he puts his hand up.

“Your relationship with him has now ended and he will be notified. You are not to contact him in any way from this point forward. If we find out you disobeyed, there will be consequences.” He pounds his gavel. “This ends the sentencing. They may now be escorted out, except for Jade Sinclair.”

What? I can’t leave? Why can’t I leave? I answered their questions. I’m done.

Two robed men appear with blindfolds. They place them on Victoria, Sadie, and her sisters, and lead them out of the room. I remain standing there under the hot lights. I close my eyes a moment to escape the harsh glare.

“Yes, Pearce.” I open my eyes when I hear the man talking again. I didn’t hear Pearce say anything. Maybe he raised his hand.

“Jade has answered your questions regarding Victoria,” Pearce says from somewhere behind me. “I request that she be allowed to leave now.”

“We have other questions for her. Please sit down.” He pauses, probably waiting for Pearce to sit, then says, “Jade, the members would like to know why it is you re-entered into a relationship with Garret Kensington after his actions and behaviors last spring?”

Shit. What kind of question is that? I’m not prepared for this. I don’t know what to say. I feel like I have to craft each word perfectly for these people or I’ll screw up and get myself in trouble.

“Ms. Sinclair?” he says, waiting for my response.

“It’s Kensington. Jade Kensington. Garret and I are married.”

Dammit. I shouldn’t have corrected him like that. Now I’m going to get in trouble.

“We know your name is Kensington. We used Sinclair just to avoid any confusion while discussing this case. Now, please answer the question.”

“I um—” I’m so hot under these lights I feel dizzy. Or maybe it’s just because I’m nervous. “I love him.” I take a breath. “I love Garret and I forgave him for what he did. He’s young, and people tend to do stupid things when they’re young. He needed to do all that stuff and get it out of his system.”

“And is it out of his system? Is he no longer doing those things?”

I hesitate. If they think Garret’s a new man who doesn’t do anything bad, they might try to get him back.

“Garret isn’t perfect,” I say. “He still has some issues to work through.”

“What kind of issues?”

“You’ve asked her enough,” Pearce says. “She doesn’t have to answer your questions. Garret is no longer a member. His issues are no longer your concern.”

“That may be true,” the man says. “But
you’re
still a member, Pearce. And what your son does could affect us. We don’t want more images of him on the news, crashing cars and destroying hotel rooms.”

“He’s not doing that,” Pearce says. “And if he does, I will stop it before the media gets word of it.”

“Jade.” The man pauses. “I trust that Garret and Pearce have informed you that any and all information you know about this group must be kept confidential, and that if you ever share this information with others, your protection under the newly instituted rule will no longer be valid, putting you at risk.”

“Yes. I understand.”

The man nods at someone on the side of the room. “Jade and Garret may leave now.”

I look to my right and see a robed man walking toward me, holding a blindfold.

“Oh, and Jade.” The man with the gavel is speaking again.

“Yes?”

Beneath the hood, on his dark shadowy face, I see his mouth curve up just slightly. “Welcome to the family.”

An icy chill runs down my spine as the blindfold is wrapped around my eyes. Why did he say that? What does that mean? Is it good or bad? I need to get out of here. I know they said I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe and I want out of here as fast as possible.

I feel Garret’s hand around mine. He leads me out of the room into the cold, damp hallway and back outside. Garret helps me into the car and I feel it drive away. After we’ve been driving a while, Garret takes the blindfold off me.

We still can’t talk because of the microphones in the car. So I just lay against him and close my eyes and try to calm down. That whole experience totally freaked me out. The only good thing that came out of it was that Victoria got punished. Making her poor doesn’t seem like that big of a punishment, but I guess to her it is. And now Sadie won’t be first lady.

I smile at that. I used to want to try to be friends with my half sisters but not anymore. I’m done trying. Like Garret told me before, you don’t have to be friends with your family. And after today’s events, I know for sure that Sadie and I will never be friends.

GARRET

I hated being back there. Back in that underground dungeon where they have their meetings. It’s not really a dungeon. It’s just a room with tiered seating. But when they dim the lights and do that spotlight thing, it looks like a damn dungeon. Then they add the black robes with the hoods and you feel like you’re in a medieval torture chamber, preparing to be beheaded.

Their usual meetings aren’t like that, but this was a sentencing, so they have to make it dark and ominous. Jade was shaking the whole time. I knew she’d be scared, standing there all by herself. And I wouldn’t have left her side, but then I found out I’d be sitting right behind her so I went along with it. My dad was seated next to me. Across from us, in front of Jade, was the ruling council. They give out the punishments. I don’t know who’s on the council. I couldn’t see their faces.

I never wanted Jade to be anywhere near those people. Not just the ruling council, but any of the members. But she insisted we do this, thinking they’d leave us alone if we did. And although I think it was good the members saw her in person and were told that she can never be harmed, I still didn’t like having her so close to them.

When we’re back at the house, we go up to my room and Jade collapses on the bed.

“Jade, get up.”

“I just need to rest a minute after all that stress.”

“Take your clothes off.”

She sits up. “What? Garret, I don’t want to have sex right now.”

I start undressing. “We’re not having sex. We’re checking for microphones.”

“On our clothes?”

“Yes. They could’ve planted them on us while we were there. So take everything off.”

She takes off her dress and we change into different clothes. Then I bring her dress and my suit downstairs and leave them in the study. My dad will check the clothes later when he checks his suit. He has one of those wand things to check for hidden microphones but I don’t know where he keeps it.
 

“Okay, now we can talk,” I say when I get back upstairs. Jade is lying on my bed. I lie next to her.

“Are all the meetings like that?”

“No, but I can’t tell you what they’re like so let’s not talk about it.”

“Do you think Victoria’s going to try to do something to me now that she’s been punished?”

“No. If she did, she’d be punished again. The members see you as one of us now, and Victoria no longer is. She knows if she messes with you, she’ll get in trouble.”

“Maybe she doesn’t care. She’s already been punished so she has nothing to lose.”

“She has a lot more to lose. They went easy on her.”

“What about Sadie? Do you think she’ll do something to me?”

“If she does, I’ll go after her myself. You didn’t do anything wrong, Jade. This is all happening because of what Royce did. Did Sadie say something to you while you were standing there? I saw her turn her head and it looked like she said something.”

“She called me a bitch.” Jade says it softly.

I sigh. “What the fuck is Sadie’s problem? You’ve never said or done anything bad to her and she still acts like that.”

“Her sister called me a whore.” Jade’s eyes are tearing up. She really wanted sisters, but I think she’s finally getting that having the Sinclair girls as sisters is not a good thing. “Emily doesn’t even know me and she still called me that.”